Why Some Pipes Deliver More Nicotine
- Thread starter Briar Lee
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No Marx pipe I’ve ever seen has grain even a fraction so pretty. That fancy grain may mean that briar is harder than the bland, tannish, plain briar Marx used.
If you look at the advertisements for the $25 “400” it cannot hold a candle to any $10 Kaywoodie Flame Grain for looks, of that era.
That grade of Algerian briar might have been so soft that even WDC had a hard time selling pipes made of it, which is where Marx would have discovered it.
And I think I’ve solved the mystery of why I get more nicotine with a Marxman.
They smoke so well, and so cool, I subconsciously smoke faster, upping my dose of Vitamin N.
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You mean instead of going in real style on say a Norton, Triumph or BSAIt wasn’t the same Algerian Marx used. It couldn’t have been unless it was blasted.
A typical smooth Marx pipe noticeably colors all over with each smoke. They’ll get a deep, dark reddish black brown very quickly,,,,:just the same shade as a good Hermann Oak leather saddle that has neatsfoot oil applied and gets well broken in.
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If you ever own one Hermann Oak saddle you’ll never want another kind unless it’s a show saddle which cannot be made of it, because it gets too dark.
My wife and I when we were younger were on saddle horses swimming rivers and climbing rocky hillsides where no other saddles were even considered except custom made Hermann Oak.
Not that it’s any safer.
It would be like killing yourself on a Japanese Harley clone intstead of a Hog.
Yes briar grown in different climes has different properties but one also has to take into account the age of the bole, the part of the bole it’s cut from and the grain. That’s before it’s been cured and treated. I’m just wishing I hadn’t wasted this much of my life reading this thread, I could have a fresh coffee in front of me instead.
I'm really glad someone likes these pipes. It's awesome to have a brand that you can get excited about, and the nice thing is that you're not going to have thousands of people competing against you to get one.
I am about the same with a little known Holland/Belgian company, but I don't sing it's praises, because I really don't care to build up a following of competitors.
But, I'm glad you love these.
I am about the same with a little known Holland/Belgian company, but I don't sing it's praises, because I really don't care to build up a following of competitors.
But, I'm glad you love these.
Marx had a business model of using the blandest, plainest, least fancy Algerian briar he could buy, which it stands to reason was cheap.
I just bought for ten bucks asking price this chunky bent Super Briar, maybe from the war years.
Super Briar was supposed to be the pretty ones and that pipe is so ugly only a Marxman addict could love it.
It looks only a little more than halfway to getting the dark reddish brown almost black color they all get in a very short period of smoking.
It will clean up. Whatever cake it has will just twist out with a knife like powder, leaving smooth dark brown briar.
The smallest Super Briar was $5 and there were two higher grades of Super Briar at $7.50 and $10.
Bent pipes seem to be rare. This will be my second.
I just wonder what Marx kept for himself and his crew half as wonderful as what he sold, you know?
The lion’s share of Marx’s customers were dealers.
Marx did extensive national advertising in expensive magazines, which listed retail prices.
The exception seems to have been the top of the line $25 Benchmade where the rugged outdoor man of action got his name in Marx’s Blue Book along with the registration number of the unique creation.
Marx was using the 1 1/2 cent business rate to correspond with dealers in 1946. The first class rate was 3 cents.
I’ve found one pipe marked Westchester in a Marxman box that might have been a second. If Marx had seconds it was a well kept trade secret. For years he advertised pipes from $3.50 to $25 and it seems at the last there were the $2.50 Dunsboro and Morocco.
They were luxury goods in a sea of fifty cents to one dollar briar pipes.
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I love the ads for some reason! I had to pick on up to have next to my pipe stuff. I'll snap a pick next time I'm down there!
"Relax with a Marxman"
Perfect line. Every time I load a Marxman I know I'm about to have a great smoke.
Every successful business needs a “moat” to insulate it from competitors.
If a customer from 1934 to 1953 had five dollars to spend on a pipe if he bought a Marxman Benchmade like this smallest A size it had a generously sized .775” bore, the thing would not get hot to hold, it had a little hand carving (likely to hide flaws) and it colored like a the best grade of Hermann Oak stock saddle, very quickly. Whatever grade of Algerian briar Marx used, he had more or less a monopoly on consistently good smoking rustic pipes that cost a lot of money.
They were not fancy, not traditionally beautiful, and certainly none I’ve seen had exhibition grade briar, or even close.
That was the point of a Marxman.
You relaxed and smoked them.
My best Marxman Super Grain cannot hold up a dim candle for beauty and attractiveness of grain to my worst stamped star era Lee.
And when compared to 5 and 7 pointed gold inlaid era Lees the Lees are just off the charts better quality pipes on the outside you can see.
And only a Lee pipe is sugary honey sweet during break in. Lee had a curing process unlike any other pipe. Maybe he boiled his briar in saccharine. Plus a real Lee had a hidden screw in fitment with a removable stinger and for a long time, real jeweler’s gold inlaid stars. And early Lee pipes had zero visible fills.
I’ve not found yet one stem from one Marxman that even comes close to fitting another Marxman. Marx had a factory and he came close to calling them hand made, and we’ve seen his machines in Pipe Lover’s Magazine, but essentially Marx had some pipe makers all sitting at benches turning out pipes, it was not an assembly line.
Whatever briar they used at Marx I don’t think I own one with less than two or three fills, none have fancy grain, and the things smoke like they are made of asbestos and every one colors, I swear, while you smoke it.
Which is it?
Do you want to look at your pipe or smoke it?.
I do wonder if @Briar Lee ’s Marxman pipes are colouring so quickly because he stripped the finish off and coated them with grape seed oil, which is darkening from the heat produced by the pipe.
@telescopes : Has your 400 darkened much (if at all) since you got it? I might have five or six Marxman pipes and couldn’t say they’ve become appreciably darker over time.
@telescopes : Has your 400 darkened much (if at all) since you got it? I might have five or six Marxman pipes and couldn’t say they’ve become appreciably darker over time.
Good point. No, THE FOUR HUNDRED has not darkened. @Briar Lee is notorious for altering the intended finishes of all his pipes. Grape seed oil does indeed darken with heat - just look what it does for an iron skillet when used as a seasoning agent. My 400 has a nice shiny hard finish on the surface. My Benchmade has been smoked a lot and it looks about the same as when it was cleaned up. None of my pipes are ever scrubbed of their outside finishes. The custom Robert Marxman that he has was scrubbed of its finish and replaced with grape seed oil and darkened immediately. Good point. An example of a self fulfilling prophecy where the prophet creates the conditions for the prophecy to come true.
Pipes can and do darken but I suspect something else has tainted the experience.
Every pipe I get in I clean completely with Everclear inside and out. I remove the cake from bowls. Stems are also cleaned with Everclear and usually steel wool and Obsidian oil.
If it needs it I don’t spare the steel wool on the briar.
With Kaywoodies and Lees and other brands than Marxman I’ll use grapeseed oil as a sort of polisher.
A Marxman is such an oil sponge I usually don’t use grapeseed oil.
If a Marxman has no cake and no outside wax it will color, as you smoke it. It will get darker and redder than his one I’ve not touched yet:
Other pipes don’t change colors like these. Not even close.
If it needs it I don’t spare the steel wool on the briar.
With Kaywoodies and Lees and other brands than Marxman I’ll use grapeseed oil as a sort of polisher.
A Marxman is such an oil sponge I usually don’t use grapeseed oil.
If a Marxman has no cake and no outside wax it will color, as you smoke it. It will get darker and redder than his one I’ve not touched yet:
Other pipes don’t change colors like these. Not even close.
Of my two custom Marxman 1987 freehand pipes, the only one I oiled was the raw, unfinished one that weighs 120 grams. I did that only because it would pick up dark fingerprints.
My latest Big Boy and the finished and polished 1987 Freehand both weigh 75 grams.
The Big Boy came light tan and look what a dozen smokes did, after the wax was stripped and all the cake removed.
The short shank Jumbo “B” has not been smoked over fifty times. It will keep on darkening to a reddish dark brown like a an old copper penny, just like a good stock saddle does.
Every Marxman I own has plain, almost bland briar with tiny fills visible.
They do not get hot when smoking.
Remember, each one was a luxury item that cost ten, twenty, thirty or fifty times what a no name fifty cent basket pipe cost in the day. And the shops were bursting with one dollar pipes with brand names like Yelo-Bole.
If my favorite pipe seller Charlie Rich had been peddling briar pipes then he’d have had a $15 Big Boy or $25 400 on his counter with Moon Mullican playing in his shop, his pipe wine red dark as a good saddle to sell to the ladies that wanted their escort to be a rugged outdoor man of action.
Marx’s gimmick was that briar.
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By the way, is that color coming from the inside or from oils on our hands, or maybe both?
It seems to me they color from smoking just like a meerschaum does, only all over and not starting the color in the shank.
It time they look like old copper pennies, or a twenty year old stock saddle,,,same shade.
And as for smoking, the insulation factor is just off the charts in comparison with anything else.
Yes, a novice could freight train one and burn it up.
But when I smoke a Marxman it does not get hot to hold, it never sweats, it’s almost like smoking a thermos bottle.
A Pre 54 Marxman is a different pipe than anything else I’ve smoked.
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